Recounts The Commission is given power to order a recount of votes at any polling station, either on its own initiative or at the request of a candidate or political party contesting the election, if the Commission has reason to believe that a miscount occurred which might affect the result.35 The Commission’s decision to order, or not to order, a recount will not be subject to an appeal; it would have been better if the decision was appealable. Conflict management The Amendment Bill will move the provisions on conflict management from a Schedule into the body of the Electoral Act, thereby affording them greater prominence and importance. The Bill will also provide for the establishment of multi-party liaison committees to be set up for local as well as national elections. It will further provide for independent candidates to be included in multi-party liaison committees.36 Misuse of state resources In past elections the ruling party has made extensive use of state resources such as State vehicles when campaigning. This is an unacceptable misuse of State property and resources. The party should only be permitted to use its own party resources for this purpose. The Amendment Bill does not seek to address this problem, and this is a serious defect since it allows the ruling party, by default, to exploit an unfair advantage. Media coverage of elections The Amendment Bill contains a number of provisions that seek to ensure fair media coverage during the election period.37 The provisions relate to public broadcasters and other news media. Public broadcasters The Amendment Bill will empower the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, with the approval of the Justice Minister, to pass regulations governing electoral reporting by the public media. As the Commission should be independent of political influence, the requirement that these regulations receive Ministerial approval should be removed. It is noteworthy that the Commission can make these regulations without consulting with the Media and Information Commission or the Broadcasting Authority suggests that even the Government has doubts about the impartiality of these two bodies. Public broadcasters will be obliged to “afford all political parties and independent candidates such free access to their broadcasting services as may be prescribed” in the regulations. The regulations must provide for: • the total time allocated to each political party or candidate; • the duration of each broadcast by the party or candidate; • the times when and areas to which such broadcasts are to be transmitted. 35 See clause 48 of the Bill. 36 See clauses 76, 81 and 84 of the Bill. 37 See clause 12 of the Bill. 16